Standards of Learning

There are many good reasons to cancel school. Snow. A hurricane. No heat. A busted water pipe.

But until last week, I had never heard of canceling schools because of what they were teaching.

I have now.

An entire school system in Virginia was shut down Friday -- 10,000 students, all kept at home -- after a teacher gave an Arabic calligraphy assignment. The assignment, to copy a line as written, was from a standard textbook in a standard class, world geography, with the subject being world religions.

Unfortunately, the line used was the Muslim statement of faith, which translates to "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of...

Related "Standards of Learning" Articles

There are many good reasons to cancel school. Snow. A hurricane. No heat. A busted water pipe.
But until last week, I had never heard of canceling schools because of what they were teaching.
I have now.
An entire school system in Virginia was shut down...